Start A Lawn Care Business

Make money with a lawn care and landscaping business.

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Lawn Care Do-It-Yourselfers

Jul 15

Posted by Lawn Care Business in fertilizer, landscaping, lawn business strategies, lawn care business, lawn chemicals | 1 Comment

As lawn care professionals we are often faced with prospective residential and commercial clients that would rather do the work themselves.

I came across a new article recently proclaiming residential customers can save money by fertilizing their own lawns.  Since a spreader is only $24 and a bag of fertilizer is only $15, the cost is about $40 vs. $65 for professional fertilizing:

http://maplewood.patch.com/articles/is-landscaping-taking-a-hit-2

The news article failed to mention three key components of hiring a professional perform lawn care work.

1) Time benefit:

Visiting a garden center, choosing correct fertilizer, reading instructions, donning protective gear, readying equipment,  fertilizer application, and equipment clean all take time.  A home owner can easily spend 4 or 5 hours trying to save $15.

2) Knowledgeable Application

Knowledge of fertilizer types, timing of application (weather), spreader settings, and dispersal densities all increase the efforts needed for correct fertilization of a residential lawn.

3) Professional Material Handling:

Being in the lawn care business since 1992, I have received dozens of calls from homeowners who have tried to fertilize their own lawns.  A typical caller asks if I can come fix their lawn because they either over applied fertilizer, accidentally broadcast lawn fertilizer into flower to shrub beds (killing their plants), or spilled a pile of fertilizer onto their lawn when they knocked their broadcast spreader over or the fertilizer bag split dumping contents into a pile on their lawn.

$15 Savings?

Is all this hassle really worth the $15 a home owner might save by doing it themselves?

Next time you are faced with a do-it-yourselfer let them know they are only saving a few dollars versus the tremendous amount of time, energy, and money they will expend attempting to get professional results.


Start Your Own Lawn Care Business

Have you ever wanted to start your lawn care business or are you hoping to expand your current business?  Our Lawn Care Business program can help you achieve a more successful business.

Check out our home page by clicking the
“How To Start A Lawn Care Business”
link toward the top of this page.

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Father's Day June 21, 2009 Lawn Care

May 27

Posted by Lawn Care Business in father's day, lawn business strategies, lawn care training | 1 Comment

Father’s Day is June 21, 2009

If you are like millions of people around the country, you haven’t even begun to think about a gift to buy for your Father this coming Father’s Day. Father’s Day will be here before you know it. Before you drive out to the mall or Wal-Mart and spend an hour shopping for something he probably won’t like anyway (sorry, truth hurts) take a moment to think about buying him something that will truly benefit him and his life.

Earning Money is Important to Fathers

What is important to most Fathers? Money, right? Not just money itself but money as a way to provide for their families, to put food on the table, to pay the rent/mortgage, and to pay for the niceties that make life enjoyable. Especially in these hard economic times, any man with a family is worried about his ability to maintain finances.

Though it might seem unlikely, starting a lawn care and landscaping business can be a quick way to generate almost immediate cash. Lawn care can also be a long-term business that can grow over time. Starting his own business may be a life changing event.

About Men (especially Fathers)

Let me tell you a quick fact about most men (I am one so I should know). There is a reason men don’t want to stop to ask for directions. There’s a reason men are reluctant to ask for help. We want to figure things out on our own. We are explorers and pioneers. We are hunters and gatherers. We are cavemen and Vikings. Armed with only a club we will kill the fiercest beast and drag it home for dinner.

Okay, that would all be well and good if we were living a million years ago. But we’re not living a million years ago. We’re living in the present and there are consequences to trying things on your own. There is help available today and there is no stigma accepting help from others.

Help Him Start a Lawn Care Business

Starting a lawn care business is no different than being a pioneer except for the fact that it doesn’t have to be done alone. There should not be any stigma accepting help in starting a lawn care business. But, men are men and sometimes reluctant to ask for help. This is where you should step in for the Father in your family.

Business Start-Up

The ( www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com ) business program is designed to help in starting your own lawn care business. From the first days of your business plan, learning about licenses, knowing how to advertise and what equipment to buy, the business program takes you through practically every step of operating a successful lawn care and landscaping business. We have been in the business since 1992 and we have done everything from small $20 lawns all the way up to large multi-year government mowing contracts. All our years of knowledge and experience has been poured into the program.

Father’s Day Gift

If you would like to get your Father the best Father’s Day present ever and not make him face starting his own business alone, get him the complete Lawn Care Business program.  It includes a full series of business  manuals, business software, training videos, and estimating & bidding software.   It’s on sale right now in time for Father’s Day.

Visit our homepage at: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Lawn Care Businesses Watch Nature Unfold

May 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in environment, landscaping, lawn business strategies | No Comments

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

Owning a lawn care / landscaping business means you get to enjoy the wonderment of nature more than the average person.

If you are just starting your own lawn care business you might think of it as nothing more than cutting your customers lawns as a way to make money.  After you have been in business for awhile you will begin to feel a kinship with nature.  Whether you simply cut grass to make money or you offer full-service landscaping you will increasingly notice the changes that nature provides.

StartALawnCareBusiness.com is located near the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains.  We love watching “color creep” each spring and fall.  In early spring all deciduous trees are without leaves.  Slowly, as temperatures rise and days lengthen, trees at the base of our mountains begin to turn green.  As spring wears on, trees at ever increasing elevations gain their foliage.  On a day-to-day basis we watch the color creep up the mountain.

Spring leaf color creaps up a mountian

Spring leaf color creaps up a mountian

As photosynthesis ceases during Autumn, an opposite color creep occurs as trees at higher elevations turn golden and eventually shed their leaves followed closely by trees at lower elevations.

Color creep is just one of the millions of amazing phenomena of nature.  Lawn Care and Landscaping Business owner have special opportunities to view nature at work.  Those business owners also have special responsibilities in conducting their businesses.  The “StartALawnCareBusiness” program will help you run a successful lawn care business so you can take part in the wonderment of nature.

Learn more at our website: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Tips for Starting a Lawn Care Business

Apr 29

Posted by Lawn Care Business in bidding lawn care, customers, how much to charge, lawn business strategies | No Comments

by: Start A Lawn Care Business

The lawn care business program available from our website: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com is packed with information about how to operate a lawn care business.  Sometimes we are asked: “What is your number one piece of advice for someone brand new to the lawn care business?”

No individual tip can sum up all you need to know about running your own business, knowing how to price your services is a tremendously important lesson to learn about running your business.

Pricing is subjective in the lawn care industry.  No one can tell you exactly how much to price each job.  Therefore, it is very important for you to develop a strong pricing strategy. Know your costs, know how much your time is worth, and know what price the market will bear. If the market won’t bear the amount you need to cover your costs then don’t do the job. You can’t make money by losing money. DUH…right? You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that basic concept.  Companies go out-of-business everyday because they can’t cover costs.

Additionally, don’t let customers talk you down in price or intimidate you because you’re new to the business…they’ll do that, trust me. If a lawn care or landscaping job is worth $30 hold firm to that price. If the customer won’t pay, walk away and find someone who will. Don’t sacrifice your rightful profit just to get a lawn care customer.

Our lawn care business package has a huge section on how to bid and estimate lawn care and landscaping jobs.  Estimating calculator software is also included with the package.  The lawn care estimator will help you estimate your lawn care jobs.

You can purchase the lawn care business package, on sale right now, from:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Landscaping and Homeowners' Associations

Apr 27

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, Real Estate Clients | 3 Comments

by: Lawn Care Business

Free Lawn Care Advertising by Landscaping a Homeowners’ Association Entryway.

Landscaping an entryway can bring many new lawn care customers. (Free Advertising)

The impact made by your landscaping work may be your best form of self advertising especially when you landscape by planting decorative shrubs and colorful perennials.

Bidding lawn care contracts within homeowners’ associations can be very profitable for your lawn care company.  Often, homeowners’ associations bid out contracts for public areas within their confines.  Pools, road right-of-way, and, most importantly, sub division entrances are included within the lawn care and landscaping arrangements.

Allowances for advertising vary from one homeowners’ association to another.  Some HOAs will allow you to place signs on completed project areas while other HOAs will place a free ad for you within their monthly newsletter and recommend you as trusted vendor within the community.

The entrance to a residential complex under the guidance of a HOA is probably the most important initial portion of your landscaping work for the HOA.  The subdivision entrance is the first impact anyone entering the subdivision experiences.  If your landscape work is dreary or unkempt it will make a negative impact on those who notice.

However, if you skillfully design your landscaping and make a spectacular impact every resident of the subdivision will notice your work and many of them will clamor to become your clients.

Free Lawn Care Advertising

Although landscape design and installation will bring you many new lawn care customers, resist the temtation to reduce your price in exchange for “Free Lawn Care  Advertising” as you might be convinced by the HOA. Great landscaping is free advertising for the HOA since residents, seeing great landscaping, will happily continue paying their HOA fees.

When landscaping for a homeowners’ association, charge fairly and do a great job.

Landscaping a subdivision entryway is free advertising for your lawn care business.

Landscaping a subdivision entryway is free advertising for your lawn care business.

Our Start A Lawn Care Business package is on sale right now for quick shipment.   For much more information about the business package, visit our website at:  http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Pruning for your Landscape Business

Apr 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping, lawn business strategies, lawn care videos, lawn equipment, pruning | 1 Comment

by:
Lawn Care Business

How to properly
prune a limb off a tree.

Small pruning jobs can bring extra money into your lawn care / landscaping business. In today’s example, we have a branch that
has been damaged. The bark is peeling away from the subwood. The entire limb is
dead and needs to be pruned off to maintain the health of the tree.  Read
the directions below the video window.

 

 


This tree limb is joined at a collared union

This limb is joined at a collared union. 
The bark of the tree poofs out as the limb come out of the tree. The poofed out
part is the collar. All cuts at a collared union should be on the branch side of
the collar. You should never cut into the collar of a tree. Cutting into a
collar can do severe damage to the tree.

If this branch were smaller, we could use a pair of anvil loppers to prune away
the branch. Since it is so large, our anvils will not produce a correct cut. For
this branch we are going to use a bow saw. A pruning saw will work too.


Proper pruning: Three Cut Method

The proper method of cutting a branch with
a saw is to use the three-cut method of pruning. If you just use the saw and cut
it at the collar, the weight of the branch will pull down and you risk tearing
the collar damaging the tree. We are going to use the three-cut method.

The first cut is made on the underside of the branch about 5 inches away from
the collar. Cut the branch about 1/4 way through.


Underside Pruning Cut

The second cut is made about 2 inches
further away from the collar than the underside cut. As you can see in the
video, while making the top cut the branch fell downward before the cut was
complete. This action tore the underside of the branch to the underside cut. If
we had not made the underside cut, the tear may have proceeded to the collar and
damaged the health wood inside. The underside cut protected the collar.

After the main branch is cut away, you can make a third cut just outside of the
collar to cut away the remaining stub to finish your pruning job.

Pruning Sealant

On some pruning cuts, you may need to use
an arborists’ sealer to protect against insects and disease. However, since we
made this pruning cut during the cold season, we are not going to seal the cut.

Lawn Care / Landscaping Pricing Guidance

For more information on how to start a lawn
care and landscaping business, check out our lawn care business program found
at:
http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com 

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